<h1>3B. Develop and refine your project budget</h1>
<p>Once you know exactly what tasks and activities you need to undertake, you will be in a
better position to figure out what resources you need. You should work off of your initial
analysis of funding required that you developed in your operational plan (Step 2C). This,
along with your strategic plan and your work plan, will help you develop a more refined
estimate of costs for specific activities and tasks and the broader strategies into which those
tasks feed. Your work plan will be an important input for this process, but you should keep
in mind that the work plan is short-term in nature, so you will need to make some informed
estimates projecting potential costs over the life of the project. You should not delay too
long, hoping to get more accurate estimates, as there is often a long lead time between
developing funding proposals and having money in the bank that you can spend. Thus, you
will want to develop your project budget as soon as you have a clear idea of what your
project will do (in other words, a good draft of your strategic plan).</p>
<p>You should work closely with the finance or accounting staff in your office to develop your
project budget. For many projects, your most expensive resource needs will be staff time. In
addition, you should consider what other major expenses such as physical infrastructure,
vehicles, boats or machinery are needed. You should also consider the related functions or
logistical support that the project might need, ranging from monitoring and management
expenses, to administrative or logistical support.</p>
<p>Once you have developed your project budget, you will need to identify potential funding
sources, and develop and submit proposals to those potential donors.</p>
Outputs for this standard practice include:
<ul><li>Project budget.</li>
<li>Potential funding sources identified.</li>
<li>Funding proposals developed and submitted.</li>
<li>Financial resources obtained.</li></ul>
